Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. HEI 05-85440 discloses an off-road type, especially a motocross-type, motorcycle that typically is provided with a cover, also referred to as a “shroud.” The shroud typically protects side faces of a fuel tank and a radiator. The fuel tank may be molded from synthetic resin in order to reduce weight for races. The radiator may be disposed below the fuel tank.
Recently, in addition to the original protection purposes as described above, a design nature of the shroud also has become more important and, thus, shrouds with more complicated shapes and more color variations are increased in number.
As the shroud shape is made more complicated, top edges of an operator's boots may be easily caught by the shroud edge, and a smooth change of a riding position or riding posture is interrupted (for example, refer to Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. HEI 06-321153). Alternatively, as the shroud color is made more complicated, for example, color stickers may not be able to reproduce quick, frequent, or small design changes, and color paint may have unevenness. Further, the top edges of the operator's boots typically scratch the color stickers or the paint applied to a particular portion of the shroud, which typically is a lower portion of the shroud. Thus, the color stickers and the paint easily come off.
Meanwhile, since the operator may fall from the motorcycle during a motocross race, the shroud lower portion may be broken particularly easily. As for this reason, this kind of shroud has a relatively large covering area in order to protect the fuel tank as well as the radiator. Therefore, it is uneconomical to replace the whole shroud when only the lower portion is damaged (for example, refer to Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication Nos. 2002-321676 and 2004-123092).